Today's sports shoes typically include an upper and a molded rubber or polyurethane outsole. In one widely used construction of a tennis shoe, the shoe upper is adhered to an insole piece of tough artificial soling material, such as materials sold under the name Texon or Bontex, and thereafter the outsole is affixed to the insole and upper, such as by adhesion or stitches. The Texon or Bontex insole pieces are flat, which greatly facilitates the manufacturing of the shoe. But, because the inside of the shoe thus formed is also flat, and made of a relatively hard insole material, an additional cushion insole is inserted into the shoe after manufacture. The cushion insole is not adhered to the shoe insole, but rather may be removed and replaced as desired.
In addition to providing cushioning for the feet, cushion insoles used in sports shoes are normally contoured in the heel and arch, in order to conform generally to the shape of the bottom of the foot.
While the cushion insole does make the shoe more comfortable, different feet have different shape arches, and thus the cushion insole described above cannot provide optimal arch support for everyone. It would thus be desirable to improve the arch support provided by present day cushion insoles. It would further be desirable to improve arch support in a cost effective manner, and with a device which is easy to use.